Roots music binds Chimney Choir

A mutual love of roots music brought together the choir behind Chimney Choir, which makes its Amarillo debut Thursday at The 806.

It’s the kind of love that tips over into obsession, lead singer Kevin Larkin said.

“I really got into the traditional stuff when I was about 18. That was the first time I really got obsessed with an instrument, and it really hasn’t stopped,” Larkin said.

“I’d never heard that sound before,” he said. “I think it was the acoustic nature, which is ironic because we do more computer stuff now. But the fact that four instruments in a bluegrass band could make a whole world of sound without anything but wood and strings ... you get a fix (from) it. You need it to happen more and more.”

And even better is when you find someone else with the same jones.

“It’s great when you meet someone, someone you may never have met before, but you have this common knowledge of old Irish songs, old bluegrass songs, like ‘Goodnight, Irene’ or ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken,’” Larkin said. “It’s great when you can sit down and pick up where it was left off in a musical conversation like that.”

That’s what happened when he met David Rynhart in Colorado, playing traditional Irish music at a pub in Boulder.

They lost touch, but reconnected when Larkin moved back to the area while winding down his solo project, Pineross, which played last year in Amarillo.

“We were both in the same spot,” Larkin said. “He was thinking about going solo, and I was already doing it and sick of it, so we joined forces.”

Adding multiinstrumentalist Kris Drickey, the trio now combines roots influences with experimentation both rustic (using ladders and Samsonite suitcases as percussion instruments) and modern (electronica-inspired use of technology).

“We still do the suitcase because it adds a lot of dimension, but we’re getting in there and using computer samplings and field recordings,” Larkin said. “We can take a song and paint it any way it needs to be to get the idea out.”

Though Larkin isn’t a purist, he identifies with the notion that the culture of roots music needs to be preserved.

“Remembering where you came from is why people are getting into it and keeping it alive,” he said. “That’s a good thing, because it’s definitely not commercially successful.”